1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for making decorative grass from sheet material and for separating out uniform charges of the decorative grass into bags or packages.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,266, issued to Weder et al., discloses a process for making decorative grass. Plastic strips are passed through a slow godet, a drawing oven and a high speed godet to enable the strips or strands to be drawn down in width and thickness without breaking. From the high speed godet, the strips or strands are chopped to a desired length and conveyed to a storage area.
The Weder '266 process does not segregate the decorative grass into uniform charges for bagging and packaging. The decorative grass is merely conveyed to a storage area.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,521, issued to Weder et al., discloses an apparatus and method for producing weighed charges of loosely aggregated filamentary material from compacted bales of the material. The apparatus includes a rotating drum which disintegrates bales of filamentary material into tufts of filaments. The tufts are passed to a picking chamber, where a toothed roll strips individual filaments from a supply roll formed from the tufts. The filaments are deposited on a scale until a charge of filaments is accumulated. Then air is blown across the scale to discharge the scale.
The Weder '521 apparatus does not make decorative grass from sheet material. Rather, the Weder '521 apparatus takes compacted bales of previously produced filamentary material, disintegrates the bales and weighs out charges of loose filaments.